


Send me on my way

by Clexamylexa



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Clexa, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hair Salon, Haircuts, Lexa and Bellamy are the friendship we were absolutely robbed of, Murphy and Madi are iconic, artist!Clarke, hairstylist!Lexa, literally no angst at all ever, madi's a little shit but also stepping up as cupid, no one dies, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24554422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clexamylexa/pseuds/Clexamylexa
Summary: This is my first fic I'm ever posting and I purely wrote this for myself to stop the idea floating around my head and it's currently 1:30am and I'm posting this on impulse but if anyone finds it hopefully you enjoy it and maybe give it a shot?Clarke takes Madi to get her haircut and Lexa's the hair stylist that does it. Clarke and Lexa have the hots for each other and Madi knows this but they don't so she plays matchmaker. Clarke and Madi live in a decked out trailer because Clarke was kicked out by Abby when she had Madi at 17. Clarke's friends are great and support them so much but Clarke won't let them pay for a house but she might let Lexa???? I dunno where I'm going with this this is kinda all I have of an idea so far and this chapter is all I have written but I WILL finish it even if it takes me years.
Relationships: Anya & Lexa & Lincoln (The 100), Anya & Lexa (The 100), Anya/Raven Reyes, Bellamy Blake & John Murphy, Bellamy Blake & Lexa, Bellamy Blake/John Murphy, Clarke Griffin & John Murphy, Clarke Griffin & Lexa & Madi, Clarke Griffin & Madi, Clarke Griffin/Lexa, Lexa & Lincoln (The 100), Lexa & Madi (The 100), Octavia Blake & Clarke Griffin & Raven Reyes, Octavia Blake/Lincoln
Comments: 41
Kudos: 183





	1. Lexa and Madi meet

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully you enjoy this??? ALSO this has not been beta-ed at all so all mistakes are on me please tell me if you find any I tried to make sure there aren't any

Madi jumps out of the car and slides the car door closed. She's bouncing on the balls of her heels and Clarke has to put her hands on her shoulders to calm her down before they walk into the salon, 'Hair x Cult'. 

"Sorry Mommy, I'm just really excited," Madi says as she tries to calm down, a huge grin on her face. 

"I know you are babygirl, but you'll have to sit still in the chair for your hairdresser ok?" Clarke says with a loving sigh. Madi nods and walks into the salon with Clarke right behind her. When they walk in Clarke is immediately greeted with the smell of hair products, and the sound of hair dryers, chatter and light music. The whole place feels really homely and friendly and Clarke's glad she chose this place for Madi. A very pretty woman who looks to be about Clarke's age greets them when they get up to the desk and asks them if they'd like anything to drink. 

"Can I have an apple juice please?" Madi asks innocently, smiling up at the lady. 

"I don't think they'll have any here Madi." Clarke says quietly as she tries not to laugh. 

The girl behind the counter laughs a little. "No it's ok, I've got some bottles in the back specially for little girls and boys like you Madi." The girl says, picking up on her name after hearing Clarke say it. 

Madi smiles up at Clarke and Clarke in return runs a hand over Madi's hair, trying to smooth it out a little before one of the hairdressers starts cutting it. She sits down and pulls Madi onto her lap as the girl goes to get Madi's apple juice. 

"Your hair got so long," Clarke says, absentmindedly playing with it. "Where do you think you want to cut it?" She asks.

"Here!" Madi responds, moving her hand to somewhere about 10cm down from her shoulder. 

"Wow, that'll be a big change!" The girl says as she comes back with Madi's juice. 

"Thank you!" Madi says as she takes the juice handed to her. 

"Anything for you Miss?" The girl asks kindly, directing the question towards Clarke. 

"I'm ok, thank you." Clarke responds. "And you can just call me Clarke by the way," Clarke adds. 

"Lexa," the girl responds respectively. "So Madi, do you want to come up here and get started or do you want to wait to finish your juice?" Lexa asks, going to sit down at the salon chair closest to them. 

"Can I have a few sips of my juice?" Madi asks as Clarke helps her to open it. 

"Of course," Lexa replies. 

Clarke looks around the salon a little more while Madi sits on her lap. It's got a very vintage feel to it, wood panelling on the walls and wooden planks on the floor. There's hanging plants between the stations and at the back of the salon four hair washing stations. All the stylists talk and laugh with each other and their clients, giving it a very welcoming feel. She's about to ask if Madi's done when Lexa asks her a question. 

"Did you want layers or anything for Madi?" She asks, her legs crossed and piercing green eyes looking at her softly. 

"This is actually her birthday present, so I really shouldn't say what I want but do you think you can show her some photos of what you think might look good?" Clarke says back to Lexa, peeking out from behind Madi. 

"Of course," Lexa responds. "I'll get up a few photos now and show them to you just for permission and stuff like that." 

Clarke nods. A few moments later Lexa gets up and moves to her side, tilting her phone screen towards Clarke. 

"So there's cuts like these, with less noticeable, long layers that are easy maintenance. Then we've just got the straight cut and shorter layers. Depending on how short she wants it, different layers look better with different styles," Lexa tells her as she scrolls through the photos. 

"I'm fine with any of those, although I'd prefer the lower maintenance ones just because I'm the one doing her hair in the morning, not her," Clarke says as she cracks a smile, Lexa sending her one too, causing Clarke to blush. 

"You done yet babygirl?" Clarke says quickly, breaking eye contact with Lexa and turning her head to try and hide her blush. Madi nods eagerly. 

"Can I show you some photos for styles I think might look good?" Lexa asks Madi, leaning against the counter. 

Madi nods and gets up from Clarke's lap to stand by Lexa's side and look at the photos. 

"That girl has hair like me!" Madi says as she touches the photo on Lexa's phone, causing it to zoom in. "Oopsie. Sorry Lexa," Madi says sheepishly. 

Lexa laughs. "It's alright kid. Did you want your hair like that?" She asks Madi with a smile on her face to show she wasn't upset. 

"Yeah, but can you make it shorter please. Up to here," Madi says, looking up at Lexa and indicating with her hand where she wants her to cut it to. 

"Yeah, I can do that. Wanna get started?" Lexa replies smiling at Madi and Clarke. 

"Yeah!" Madi replies. 

Lexa places a hand on Madi's shoulder and shows her the chair she wants her to sit in, showing Clarke the photo real quick to double check as she hadn't shown her that photo before. Clarke nods almost immediately after seeing the photo, that girl really did have hair exactly like Madi's and it looked pretty low maintenance. Plus Lexa was the expert here and if she included that photo then she was sure it would be fine.

  
Once Madi sits down in the chair Lexa pumps up the height of the chair and then fixes a cape around Madi's neck. She parts Madi's hair down the middle and pulls over her stylist's chair with her foot. She sits down and pulls on the ends of Madi's hair gently, putting one piece over Madi's shoulder to double check the height. 

"Up to here, right Madi?" Lexa asks. 

Madi nods and smiles at Lexa. Lexa smiles back and tells her she'll be right back. She comes back wheeling her tray of products and tools and with her hair tied up in a quick messy bun. She grabs a hairbrush and starts brushing Madi's hair out really gently, unlike the other stylists who have to get through their clients quickly, so they don't have the time to do it as gently as Lexa is. Clarke wonders if Lexa doesn't have another client for a little while or if she's just always this gentle. 

"So, Madi, what year are you in at school?" Lexa asks as she works on getting the knots out of the ends of Madi's hair. 

"I'm gonna start year 3 in August." Madi replies, looking at Lexa through the mirror. 

"Wow, that's a big year!" Lexa peeks out from behind her shoulder to smile at her. "Do you like school?" 

"It's ok. I only like it because I get to see my friends everyday." Madi says. 

"Ah, I used to be the same way when I was your age." Lexa replies as she puts the hairbrush back in the cart and gets her scissors out. "I'm gonna start cutting your hair now, ok Madi? I need you to keep your head very still. Can you do that for me?" Lexa asks a little more seriously, not wanting to mess up Madi's hair. 

Madi nods like she's in the army and stares straight ahead. Lexa cracks another smile before starting to cut Madi's hair. She makes one cut about 5 cm wide where Madi wanted the length of her hair to be. "Hey Madi, this is definitely the length you wanted right?" Lexa double checks before she cuts the rest. 

At Madi's nod she pulls the hair back around to the back and puts her hand on the back of Madi's head to tilt it down to where she needs it. 

"Keep your head there for me, ok kid?" Lexa asks as she starts to cut away at the rest of Madi's thick, curly brown hair. 

"Ok," Madi replies. 

Lexa's glad Madi's a pretty smart kid and knew not to nod her head as an answer. Once Lexa's done with the back she scoots over to the sides of Madi's head, evening it out there as well. She keeps up small talk with Madi the whole time, finding out her favorite colour and animal, her dream job, her favorite subject at school and her favorite food. 

"I'm almost done, you've been really good," Lexa says to Madi as she smiles at her, working on putting in some barely there long layers in Madi's hair. 

Madi beams back at her. Lexa catches Clarke smiling at the two of them out of the corner of her eye, so she turns a little and smiles back at her. 

"Ok Madi, I'm all done cutting your hair. Do you like it?" Lexa asks as she stands up and pushes the seat and cart out of the way a little. 

She runs her hands through Madi's hair to give it more volume and grabs the comb to go through any more knots real quick. She holds a mirror up to the back of Madi's head so she can see the back. 

"Thank you thank you thank you Lexa!!" Madi squeals as she beams up at her, waving over her mom to show her her hair. Clarke comes over and runs her hands over Madi's hair, amazed Lexa could do it so quickly but still be so gentle. 

"This looks really good Lexa, thank you," Clarke says genuinely, looking at Lexa with soft blue eyes. 

"It's no problem. Madi's an absolute pleasure. Do you want me to fix up anything or thin it out before I take her over for a shampoo?" Lexa asks Clarke. 

Clarke shakes her head and gives her the go ahead to go wash Madi's hair. 

"Alright Madi, can you stand up for me?" Lexa asks her. "I'll take your cape off and then we'll go wash your hair, ok?" 

Madi stands up and nods as Lexa unclips the cape from around her neck. She folds it up and puts it on the chair before putting a hand on Madi's shoulder and leading her to the shampoo chairs. They walk over to the chair in the back left corner, Lexa gets Madi to sit in the chair and then she gets a small towel, folds it in half and throws it over Madi's shoulders. She flicks up the footrest for Madi and smiles when Madi gasps and leans back into the chair more, getting comfortable. 

"Have you ever had your hair washed like this before, Madi?" Lexa asks as she gathers up all of Madi's hair and puts it into the basin. 

"Nope. This is my first time coming to a hairdresser. My mommy usually cuts it for me," Madi responds, swinging her feet a little on the chair. 

"Well, hopefully it'll feel nice. If your neck starts to hurt though then just tell me, I'll adjust the towel for you. Just make sure not to lift your head up or water will drip down the back of your shirt." 

Madi makes a disapproving sound and scrunches up her nose. "Ok I won't, I don't want my shirt to get wet," she says. 

Lexa chuckles a little and then pulls the hair that's in Madi's face back behind her ears before turning on the water. "Is this temperature alright?" Lexa asks as she starts getting Madi's hair wet, putting her hand at her hairline to stop it from getting in her eyes. 

"Can you make it a little hotter please?" Madi asks. 

"Of course." Lexa adjusts the water temperature a little. "Better?"

"Yeah," Madi says. 

Lexa starts running her free hand through Madi's hair to fully saturate it when Madi speaks up. 

"Thank you!" She says quickly. 

Lexa chuckles, "You're welcome Madi." 

Once she's satisfied that Madi's hair is wet enough she pumps some shampoo into her hand and then lathers it up before massaging it into her scalp. 

"That feels really nice…" Madi says with a sigh, almost sleepily Lexa notices. 

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Your mom told me this was a part of your birthday present. Happy Birthday!" 

"Mmmmm, thank you…" Madi mumbles out a thank you. 

Lexa continues to work on in silence. She rinses out Madi's hair after about another three minutes or so, Madi has really thick hair. Then she does a second round of shampoo and then after rinsing out that finally some conditioner on the ends. 

"Ok Madi, I'll just wrap your hair up in a towel and then we can go back and blowdry your hair." Lexa says as she dries her hands on the hand towel connected to a cart nearby. 

"Madi?" Lexa asks, not getting a response the first time. 

When she doesn't get a response again she moves around to the front of the chair. What she sees makes a crooked grin appear on her face. 

"Hey Clarke, come over here real quick?" Lexa says, projecting her voice and turning towards Clarke so she can hear her. 

Clarke's up and over in a heartbeat, worried something's wrong. 

"What's wrong?" She asks, slightly panicked. 

"Oh nothing, sorry to worry you, but I just thought you might want to see this," Lexa replies, looking at Clarke softly and with a glint of happiness in her eyes. 

"Aw, Madi," Clarke says as she takes a proper look at Madi. 

The girl had fallen asleep in the chair as Lexa washed her hair, the massage obviously really good. Clarke takes her phone out of her back pocket and takes a quick picture of the sleeping girl.

"Your shampoo's must be really good if you managed to get an adhd 8 year old to fall asleep," Clarke jokes as she turns her attention back to Lexa. 

"I might have to come in here one day myself to see if they really are that good." Clarke adds as she turns back to Madi for a second. 

"Come in one day when Madi's at school or off your hands if you want," Lexa says without thinking. "I'll give you a free haircut." 

Clarke looks taken aback as she turns her full attention back to Lexa. 

"Oh no, I can't do that Lexa I-" Clarke says before she gets interrupted by Lexa. 

"Seriously, on the house. If you want to," Lexa says. 

Clarke looks like she's considering all the options in her head before responding. 

"If you're anything near as stubborn as I am, I know we could go on for hours. At least let me pay 75 percent." 

"Nope, 10 percent, my highest and final offer." 

"Lexa…" 

"Clarke…" 

"Fine. I'll come in on Monday if that's alright?" 

"Of course," Lexa replies with a smile on her face. "I'll just blow-dry Madi's hair." 

Clarke goes back to her seat and stops looking at the magazine so she can watch Lexa interact with Madi. Lexa grabs her stylist's stool and scoots over to the chair. She gently shakes Madi's shoulder to wake her up, saying her name a couple times too. Madi comes too fairly quickly, looking at Lexa a little confusedly. 

"You fell asleep," Lexa says softly, getting rid of any confusion Madi had. 

"Oh." Madi replies. Then a frown forms on her face. "But then that means I didn't feel the rest of it and it felt really nice," Madi says, looking up at Lexa. 

Lexa laughs a little. 

"Well, maybe you can ask your mom to come back here next time you have to get a haircut." 

Madi nods as Lexa wraps a towel around her thick brown locks. Lexa offers Madi her hand to help her get up from the chair as the towel on her head is probably quite heavy for the little girl. She takes her back to her station and towel dries her hair a little as she pumps up the chair. 

"I'm gonna blow-dry your hair for you, ok Madi?" Lexa says to the girl as she puts the towel over her shoulders to stop her hair from getting her shirt wet. 

"Can you make my hair curly?" Madi asks, looking up at Lexa from the chair. 

"I can, but you've already got beautiful curly hair, you know that right?" Lexa replies, grabbing a round brush and a hairdryer. 

"But it's not like the other girls' hair at school," Madi says, a little dejectedly. 

"Yours is very beautiful Madi, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, ok? And your hair is just like mine, by the way." 

"It is?!" Madi exclaims, excited. 

"Yeah, it is. I straighten it sometimes but I'll usually just braid it back like how I have it right now." 

"That's so cool." 

"I'm just going to get some heat protection and then I'll be back." Lexa says as she walks to a shelf in the back of the salon to get the cream. 

When she gets back to Madi's chair she squeezes some in her hand and rubs her hands together before running it through Madi's hair. Once she's done she tells Madi she's gonna start and then starts to blow-dry her hair. It's a lengthy process, about 15 to 20 minutes or so, for the girls hair to be completely dry and curled loosely like Madi wanted. 

Lexa shuts the hair dryer off and combs through Madi's hair a little, trying not to mess up the curls but not wanting to leave Madi's hair knotted for Clarke. 

"Ok Madi, I'm all done!" She says as she stands up from her stool. She fluffs up Madi's hair at the end and then she sees Clarke walking over out of the corner of her eye. 

"Lexa, this is amazing. Thank you." Clarke says sincerely, holding eye contact. 

"Madi, what do you say?" She adds. 

"Thank you Lexaaa!!!" Madi exclaims excitedly from her chair. 

"You're very welcome, Madi. I'm glad you like it." Lexa takes the towel off of Madi's shoulders and goes to put it away while Clarke and Madi head towards the front desk to pay. 

Lexa meets them back there fairly quickly and rings up the amount for Clarke. 

"That'll be $66 for today," Lexa says, looking at Madi and Clarke.

She sees Clarke counting her money and although she really doesn't mean to pry she can't help but worry if Clarke just brought less money than she thought or if there was more behind Clarke saying that this was Madi's birthday present. 

"Sorry, just give me a minute," Clarke says apologetically, looking up at Lexa. 

"It's no problem at all, take your time," Lexa replies, reassuring the blonde. 

Clarke smiles up at her and then Madi beckons Lexa to come forward so she can whisper something in her ear. 

"My mommy thinks you're really pretty," Madi whispers, surprisingly well for an 8 year old. 

Lexa has to hide the surprise on her face as she can't say she hadn't noticed the beauty of the blonde earlier either. 

"Madi, did your mom tell you to keep that a secret?" Lexa asks, whispering it back into Madi's ear. 

Madi shakes her head. 

"No, she just told me." 

"Well in that case, I think your mommy's really pretty too," Lexa says with a cheeky grin on her face, pulling back afterwards to smile at the 8 year old. 

She puts a finger up to her lips to show Madi to keep it a secret and Madi replies with a zipping her lips and throwing away the lock gesture. Lexa smiles and stands back up when Clarke says that she finally got it. 

"Here, sorry about that," Clarke says, a little embarrassed. 

She rubs the back of her neck and looks down at Madi to make sure she's still by her side. 

"It's no problem at all, I got to talk to Madi more and she's a great conversationalist," Lexa says, putting the money into the cash register and giving Clarke her change, rounding it up to $5.

Clarke looks at her a little confusedly but Lexa just smiles and waves it off. 

"Thanks Lexa. You were really good with Madi," Clarke says as Lexa puts in Clarke's details for reminders about later appointments. 

She also books in a spot for her on Monday at 11, after double checking that time with Clarke. 

"It was a pleasure, she's a great kid. And it was a pleasure to meet the both of you too," Lexa replies, smiling softly at the two girls. 

"Well, we better head off, hey Madi?" Madi nods her head and makes a motion for Clarke to pick her up. 

"Geez you're getting heavy babygirl," Clarke says with a smile and a slight grimace. 

"I'm tired," Madi says quietly, muffled because her head was currently placed in the crook of Clarke's neck. 

Lexa smiles at the two and waves bye, watching them get into an old station wagon a little way down the road. It looked to be from the 70s, but it was still in really good condition so Lexa wondered if Clarke has kept it up to shape or if someone keeps it up for her. Or if she bought it in really good shape. She sees Madi get into a rear facing back seat, getting in through the trunk that was like a side door. Lexa smiles and walks back into the salon as a wave of nostalgia hits her. 

She sees the look Anya gives her when she walks back in, one she hasn't seen since she was in high school with a crush on Costia. It's that look that makes her realise that maybe it's happening again, and that maybe she's waited long enough already and should open herself up to other people again. Get back out there. And then it hits her that she wants to do that with Clarke. Specifically Clarke, the blonde haired, blue-eyed beauty with an amazing little girl that flipped her world upside down the second they walked into her salon. 

She realises that she really does want to get to know the Griffin girls better, the both of them too, not just Clarke. Lexa already knows that if she wants to have any chance with Clarke she will always have to take Madi into account, and Lexa already loved the kid. 

She didn't realise she had drifted off and was just standing there until Anya was snapping her fingers and looking at Lexa with a smirk and raised eyebrows. 

"Leave me alone An," Lexa says as she walks to the back of the shop, a blooming red blush making its way across her face and neck. Anya watches her walk away with a smile. She turns to Lincoln, her and Lexa's brother and the other owner of the shop. 

"Don't tell Lex this cuz I intend to tease the shit out of her about her crush on blondie, but I am glad that she's letting herself feel again, especially after what happened with Costia," Anya says to Lincoln with a sad smile on her face. 

Lincoln returns Anya's smile with a nod and his own sad smile, before wiping under his eyes at the tears and going to sit behind the counter as he waits for the next customer.


	2. Clarke and Octavia get numbers and Raven's still single

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yello I am back I didn't expect this to get any attention so I have no posting schedule but I'll try to get a chapter out every week and if I know I'll be away for a while and I won't be able to write I will say so. I also wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for your kind comments, y'all are too sweet💞 hopefully you enjoy this ! also if there's any mistakes spelling or grammar wise can y'all tell me cuz I don't have a beta so I'm just reading through these by myself and I dunno if I'm biased to not see mistakes considering I wrote it.

Clarke walks into the salon that she took Madi to on Wednesday afternoon and sits down on one of the chairs. She sees Lexa sitting at her station, and there's eight other people in there with stylists behind them as well. Lexa looks up when she hears the door shut and she smiles when she sees Clarke. She walks up to the counter and calls her over. 

"Hey, you came!" Lexa says happily as Clarke walks up to the counter.

"I said I would, didn't I?"

"Well yes, but you never know."

Clarke smiles at Lexa and rests her arms against the counter. 

"Are you busy?"

"A little. There's no one not working," Lexa replies. "Did you want a drink or anything?"

Clarke shakes her head. "I'm alright, thank you though." 

Lexa nods her head and then gestures over towards her chair. "Should we get going then?"

Clarke smiles and follows Lexa over to the chair, sitting down as Lexa wraps a cape around her.

"What did you want done today?" Lexa asks as she starts running a brush through Clarke's hair. 

"I was actually thinking of doing something completely new and cutting it so it rests a little above my shoulders and bleaching it."

Clarke sees Lexa's eyebrows raise through the mirror. "That'll look really good, but it'll take a while so have you got a couple hours to spare?" Lexa asks.

Clarke nods. "I've just gotta be at Madi's school by 2:50, they get off at 3."

Lexa looks at the clock and it's 11:10, so they've got plenty of time. "I've just gotta go get some stuff real quick and then I'll be back."

Clarke takes the opportunity while Lexa's not standing behind her to try and calm her nerves. As much as she wants too she can't deny how pretty Lexa is, she even told Madi. Or more like Madi heard her say it under her breath when she went to get Madi an apple juice, but that's beside the point. Lexa's beautiful, with really, really green eyes and long brown hair that falls down her shoulders in waves; she walks with such confidence but it's also not arrogant at all, more like she knows who she is, like she won't be treated with any less respect than she deserves. And that jawline, Clarke had no doubts that it could cut through glass, as well as a bone structure anyone would kill for. Before she could wander off inside her head further, she sees Lexa walking back through the mirror, donning a black apron holding scissors and different combs, and wheeling a cart filled with hair dye.

"Show me where you want to cut it to?" Lexa asks. 

Clarke brings her hand above her shoulder and moves it around a bit before finally stopping it a little above her shoulder. "Just a little above my shoulder," Clarke says as she drops her hand.

Lexa nods and grabs a hair tie, tying Clarke's hair up into a low ponytail. "You ready?" She asks, scissors next to Clarke's hair.

Clarke nods once and then shuts her eyes as she hears Lexa cutting away at her hair, and then feeling an almost weightlessness once it's all off. She opens her eyes to see Lexa smiling at her through the mirror. 

"Well there's no going back now," Clarke says with a little nervous laugh that Lexa picks up on. 

"You look amazing Clarke, really," Lexa says reassuringly, pure honesty in her eyes when Clarke meets them in the mirror. "Now I can touch it up and it'll look even better."

Clarke smiles at Lexa and starts to feel a little better when she realises that she really does look good with short hair. "Thanks Lexa."

Lexa smiles back even bigger than before and double checks where Clarke wants her to cut it to before getting back to work.

* * *

Lexa's done cutting Clarke's hair after another 20 minutes or so, keeping up conversation with the blonde the whole time. She learnt that Clarke's a very animated talker and uses her hands a lot, like her, but she did have to ask her to try not to move her head around so much a couple times.

Lexa brushes the hair off of Clarke's shoulders and grabs the bleach from a tray on the cart, mixing it around and getting foils ready. She covers the brush in bleach and then gets to work. Lexa almost never talks when she dyes someone's hair, wanting to concentrate and get it right for them, and to Clarke's dismay it was the same for her, except for the occasional request for Clarke to tilt her head this way or that. She is focused and efficient as she dabs the dye over small sections of Clarke's hair and folds them up in foil. Clarke is content to watch for a little, but the longer the silence goes on, the more she wants to go back to the light conversation they had when Lexa was cutting her hair.

"Do you own the salon?" Clarke asks, hoping to strike up conversation again.

"I do, with my sister Anya and my brother, Lincoln," Lexa responds. "Anya's the one that's working at the station 2 chairs to my right, dyed blonde hair, kinda scary looking I guess? And Lincoln's the guy that was behind the counter when I was cutting Madi's hair Wednesday, he's off today, but he's a massive teddy bear, wouldn't hurt a fly."

Clarke smiles at Lexa's descriptions of her siblings. 

"Have you got any siblings?" Lexa asks, looking at Clarke through the mirror for a couple seconds before getting back to work.

"No, I'm an only child and so were my parents, so I've never really had a big family by most people's standards."

"Most people's standards?" Lexa asks, one of her eyebrows raised in a question.

"I mean, I consider my friends more of my family than my biological family, I've known all of them since elementary and Octavia and Raven, my best friends, since I was like 2. We grew up in the same street and our parents made sure to enroll us in the same daycare and schools while we were growing up, and more often than we'd all be over at my house."

Lexa smiles wistfully. "That must've been nice. We're kinda the opposite, when I was growing up I always had so much trouble making friends, but I was always surrounded by my cousins and siblings. I can't remember a single day where there wasn't at least one of them over everyday. And of course being the youngest they made it harder for me to actually make friends because they're all overly protective," Lexa says with a little laugh.

"I have one really close friend though, I'm still just as close with him today, which is a miracle considering my lack of social skills when I was younger," Lexa continues.

Clarke feels her heart drop to her stomach, automatically assuming from the description that the guy Lexa is talking about is probably her boyfriend. She didn't even think of the fact that Lexa might not be into women. Maybe she was reading all the signals wrong, maybe- 

"I met him when we were in 4th grade, he came up to me one day in class and tugged on one of my curls," Lexa says, interrupting Clarke's train of thought, "when the other kids did it they were mean and poked fun at me for it, but he came up and tugged on it gently, watched as it bounced back up into its ringlet, and then proceeded to ask me, 'have you ever tried standing on your head to see if your hair makes you bounce' and the rest is history. Now he's my best friend and sending me photos of rocks and sunsets from his holiday in Europe." Lexa finishes dying Clarke's hair and starts making sure all the foils are in place properly.

Clarke feels herself blush as the first thought that comes to her mind once Lexa finishes talking is that she might have a chance, the guys her best friend, not her boyfriend. But she's still not sure. 

"That's really sweet. Sorry if this is too personal, but are you guys dating?" Clarke asks nervously, her eyes downcast so she won't have to look at Lexa when she says yes.

It just so happens that Anya was walking by them right when Clarke asked, and she heard her question. She lets out a bark of laughter, and answers on Lexa's behalf before Lexa can even stutter out a response. 

"Blondie blondie blondie. That was funny. I will gladly take on the job of telling you that Lexa is very very gay, and very very single," Anya adds the last part as she starts to jog away from Lexa so she won't be able to smack her. 

"Anya!" Lexa blushes a deep red and stops putting everything away in its place in the cart for a second. Anya turns around and smirks at her before walking into the back room for her break. 

"Sorry about that…" Lexa says quietly, embarrassed, and gets back to work on putting the dye away.

"It's fine, Lexa, it was kinda funny," Clarke responds, her mood lifting quieter significantly after hearing what Anya said. 

Lexa smiles at her through the mirror and flicks the lock on the wheels up so she can move it again. 

"We've gotta let the dye sit for about 45 minutes, I've gotta look at the schedule and make sure I haven't got anyone coming up soon but if you need anything just give me a yell." 

Clarke nods with a smile and a thumbs up and then pulls out her phone, deciding to scroll through Instagram for half an hour before seeing the notification from just over an hour ago showing 19 messages from the groupchat her, Raven and Octavia made a couple years ago.

11:04am  


**Octopus🐙  
** GUYS IM AT THE GROCERY STORE AND I JUST SAW THE CUTEST GUY EVER AKDHSJAKF KILL ME NOW I DROPPED THE MILK CARTON I WAS CARRYING IN FRONT OF HIM. 

****

****

**literalgenius  
** BITCH WHERE-

****

**Octopus🐙  
** AT THE GROCERY STORE??

****

**literalgenius  
** I MEAN WHICH ONE DUMBASS IM COMING TO HELP YOU

****

**Octopus🐙  
** omg really🥺

****

**literalgenius  
** yes now tell me which goddamn gROCERY STORE IT IS

****

**Octopus🐙  
** THE TRADER JOES THAT CLARKE LIKES

****

**literalgenius  
** omw dw make sure he doesn't leave

****

**Octopus🐙  
** @griffindor 

****

**Octopus🐙  
** CLARKIEEEEEE

****

**Octopus🐙  
** RAVENS BEING NICE TO ME THIS IS HISTORY IN THE MAKING WHERE ARE YOU

****

**literalgenius  
** IM NICE

****

**literalgenius  
** I REALLY DID LEAVE THE HOUSE IN MY PAJAMAS TO HELP YOU GET A MAN AND THIS IS THE THANKS I GET😭

****

**Octopus🐙  
** WAIT

****

**Octopus🐙  
** please tell me it's not your dinosaur one

****

**Octopus🐙  
** Raven

****

**Octopus🐙  
** Raven Reyes pick up your damn phone if you walk into trader joe's wearing your dinosaur onesie istg-

****

**literalgenius  
** calm down chikita I'm wearing my wonder woman boxers😎

****

**Octopus🐙  
** rAVEN

****

12:11pm  


****

**griffindor  
** wait wtf what did I miss why is raven going to trader joe's in her wonder woman pajamas😭

****

**Octopus🐙  
** FINALLY

****

**Octopus🐙  
** we'll explain later come over to ours with Madi but short story short I got a number and I'm on my way to getting myself a man😌😌

****

**griffindor  
** @literalgenius please confirm this raven I'm in shock

****

**literalgenius  
** I am here to confirm that the one and only Octavia Blake has gotten herself a man's number. I am also here to confirm that if I wasn't there she wouldn't have gotten it. and also here to confirm that she said she'll cook all the dinners for the week because he is very good looking and she would like to make good looking babies with him

****

**Octopus🐙  
** RAVEN

****

**griffindor  
** O IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU

****

**griffindor  
** raven you better show me a picture of him when I get to y'all's

****

**Octopus🐙  
** why would raven have a picture of him-

****

**literalgenius  
** I can't believe you underestimate my capabilities😔✌️

****

**griffindor  
** you're underestimating her abilities to take photos from behind grocery store shelves O

****

**Octopus🐙  
** JINX

****

**literalgenius  
** you can't call jinx when you didn't say it dumbass😭💀

****

**Octopus🐙  
** why not 

****

**literalgenius  
** because that's not how it works-

****

**Octopus🐙  
** why not

****

**literalgenius  
** because it doesn't work that wAY-  


****

**griffindor  
** I can't believe I put up with you guys😳

****

**griffindor  
** actual six year olds im telling you

********

**Octopus🐙  
** awww you love us clarkie

********

****

**griffindor  
** don't call me clarkie😤

****

**griffindor  
** but yes I love you idiots💞

****

**literalgenius  
** 😘😘

****

**griffindor  
** I gotta go the hairdressers coming back love y'all

****

**Octopus🐙  
** LOVE YOU TO CLARKIE

****

**literalgenius  
** CLARKE YOU DIDN'T TELL US YOU WERE GETTING YOUR HAIR CUT WHAT WAIT COME BACK-

****

Clarke shuts her phone off and slides it back into her pocket as Lexa walks up to her.

****

"Hey! I'm just gonna check on the foils to see if they need a little longer or not, I'm pretty sure it's been about 40 minutes so it should be nearly done if it's not already," Lexa says as she puts on some gloves again.

****

Clarke nods and smiles at her again while she fidgets with her shirt sleeve.

****

"Yep it's all done!" Lexa says as she folds the foil back up loosely. "Come with me and we'll go get it rinsed out."

****

Clarke freezes when she realises that she forgot Lexa was going to be washing her hair, and that the reason why Lexa offered the really heavily discounted haircut was because Clarke said she'd have to come in one day and see if her washing hair skills really were so good that they were able to make an adhd 8 year old fall asleep.

****

She's able to make herself move quickly enough that Lexa doesn't notice anything though.

****

Lexa goes to stand behind a sink and pats the chair in front of her, indicating for Clarke to sit. Clarke sits down and leans back after Lexa drapes a really soft towel around her shoulders.

****

"Have you ever dyed your hair before?" Lex asks as she starts taking off all the foils and throwing them into the bin below her.

****

"No, my mom never let me when I was younger and I haven't had the time for it after I… after I moved out." 

****

If Lexa picked up on Clarke's hesitation, she didn't say anything, rather turned the water on to let it heat up and started taking out the last of the foils. Clarke's grateful for that, because as much as she wants to get to know Lexa better she also doesn't want to tell her such a big part of her life story as she's looking at her upside down.

****

"Is this temperature alright? It's not too hot or cold?" Lexa's done taking out the foils and has now moved on to rinsing Clarke's hair.

****

"No it's fine, thanks," Clarke says a little shakily as she feels Lexa's fingers running through her hair.

****

A few seconds later Clarke closes her eyes and sinks into the chair more, ready to relax and be able let everything leave her mind for 10 minutes or so. 

****

"Your hair's absolutely beautiful," Clarke hears Lexa say, so she opens her eyes.

****

"Thank you," Clarke says back with a little blush forming. 

****

"Seriously! Especially since that was your natural hair colour and you'd never dyed it before today."

****

Clarke blushes even more and hopes that it doesn't extend to her scalp.

****

"Okay, all the dye is rinsed out now. I'll be back in a second, I forgot I needed the purple shampoo, sorry." Lexa dries her hands off and Clarke tells her it's fine and to take her time.

****

A minute or so later Lexa walks back out from the staff room.

****

"Ok, I'm back, sorry about that," Lexa says with a little laugh. "I'll show you the shampoo I'm using before you go; because you're this blonde now you'll have to use a special type so that it keeps your colour."

****

"Oh, thank you. I wouldn't have known that," Clarke says.

****

"That's what I'm here for," Lexa smiles at her and pumps shampoo into her hands. She lathers it up and then starts scrubbing it into Clarke's hair. Clarke can barely stop herself from letting out a moan the first time that Lexa's nails scratch against her scalp, and she's almost proud of herself for having so much self control. She's resorted to closing her eyes again though, partly because she can't help it and partly because she didn't think she'd be able to survive having Lexa wash her hair while looking at her pretty much straight in the eyes.

****

By the time Lexa's done shampooing her hair the first time she's almost asleep, Lexa's somehow perfected a great balance between firm scrubs and gentle massaging, all the while using her nails in just the right places. 

****

"I can see why Madi fell asleep," Clarke says quietly, breaking the silence. "You really are good at this."

****

Lexa grins bashfully. "Thanks. How's Madi doing?"

****

Clarke feels her smile grow at the mention of her daughter. "She's good. She won't shut up about you, y'know."

****

"Really?" 

****

"Mmhmm. Every night when I put her to sleep she asks me 'can we go see Lexa tomorrow?'" Clarke says, laughing a little.

****

Lexa grins bashfully again. "You're welcome to bring her in, I'd love to say hi again. And from what it sounds like she'd love to as well," Lexa says as she starts to just massage Clarke's head since she's washed it twice already and she just has to rinse it out.

****

"She would. I wouldn't want to disturb you at work though," Clarke says as she considers the idea.

****

"You wouldn't, I promise," Lexa responds as she scratches behind Clarke's ears.

****

Clarke lets out a low moan that she really really hopes Lexa didn't hear, but from the look of the slight smirk on her face she did. She doesn't comment anything on it though, which Clarke is grateful for. 

****

"You don't know that," Clarke says as she actively tries not to make eye contact.

****

"You're right, I don't. But I could give you my number and we could set up a time where it definitely wouldn't if you want to?"

****

Clarke feels her mouth drop a little in shock. She looks up to see Lexa actively not making eye contact with her either, and Clarke's almost certain that Lexa was asking her out on a date while making it really easy for her to say no if she didn't want to.

****

"I'd love that," Clarke says while looking up at Lexa. Lexa's eyes snap to Clarke's immediately and they both smile at each other.

****

* * *

****

Lexa's standing behind Clarke's chair and is putting the hairdryer back onto the counter in front of the mirror. She runs her hands through the blonde hair and musses the back of it up a little before smoothing it out again. 

****

"I love it, Lexa. So much," Clarke says.

****

"Yeah?"

****

"Yeah. I feel like a completely different person."

****

"You look amazing. Not that you didn't before, not at all, but… you look different and it looks really good on you," Lexa says, a little flustered as she tried to find the right words.

****

Clarke beams at Lexa through the mirror. "I don't think I've liked a haircut this much before. And I definitely haven't had an experience that was this good before."

****

Lexa smiles at Clarke and nods her head to acknowledge that she heard her, ducking her head down to try and hide her blush. She takes the cape off of Clarke and brushes off the extra hair that was stuck to her clothes. 

****

"I'll ring it up for you," Lexa says and gestures with her head towards the counter. Clarke follows her and looks at the braids in Lexa's hair. 

****

"Did you braid your hair yourself?" Clarke asks once Lexa's behind the counter.

****

Lexa reaches up to touch the back of her head, as if she had forgotten they were there. "I did, yeah."

****

"They're really cool."

****

"Thank you, Anya taught me how to braid hair when I was younger and then I just kept asking everyone if I could braid their hair until I could do this on myself," Lexa says with a chuckle, making Clarke laugh a little as well.

****

"Ok so… that'll be $17," Lexa says, tapping her fingers on the counter as she calculates the price.

****

Clarke's jaw drops. "$17?! Lexa that must've been at least $180." 

****

Lexa smiles. "You were pretty close, 170 actually, but we agreed on Wednesday that you'd only pay for 10% of it." 

****

Clarke thinks of something to say but can't think of anything. "Lexa, are you sure? I really, really don't mind paying the full price."

****

Lexa shakes her head, "I was originally going to give it to you for free remember. I still would, but I know you'd want to pay for at least a little and we agreed on 10%. I promise I don't need or want more. It's already enough that I got the pleasure of meeting you and being able to cut your beautiful hair."

****

Clarke blushes at Lexa's compliments as she gets out $47. "$30 tip. You didn't say I couldn't tip you and I've already given you the money." 

****

Lexa let's a small smile grace her lips as she shakes her head, amused by Clarke's stubbornness. "I would have thought that that was just included, but thanks."

****

Lexa puts the cash into the register and then steps out from behind the counter to stand in front of Clarke. 

****

"So, do you still want my number?" Lexa asks nervously. 

****

Clarke smiles. "It's sweet that you're nervous about asking a girl for her number. I bet you're actually a massive softie under that tough exterior. Yes Lexa, I'd still love to get your number."

****

Lexa beams and moves to stand next to Clarke, trying to hide her giddiness, although she's pretty sure Clarke picks up on it.

****

"xxxx-xxx-xxx" 

****

Lexa moves back after telling Clarke her personal number and she pulls out her own phone as Clarke told her she'd send a text so Lexa has her contact as well. 

****

Unknown  
hey, it's Clarke

****

Lexa laughs. "I figured it would be you Clarke." 

****

Clarke blushes and shoves Lexa gently. "What else was I meant to say?"

****

Lexa shrugs and laughs when Clarke nudges her with her shoulder again.

****

"What do you want your contact name to be?" Lexa asks.

****

"You can make one up for me, I don't mind."

****

Lexa nods and thinks for a little before entering Clarke's contact name as "blondie," the inspiration from the name coming from when Anya called Clarke that when she told her Lexa was very very gay.

****

Clarke tries to peek over her shoulder to see what Lexa put her name as and pouts when Lexa giggles and blocks her phone from Clarke's view.

****

"Aren't you gonna tell me what my name is?" Clarke asks.

****

"Nope," Lexa replies. She grins with her tongue between her teeth when Clarke pouts harder.

****

"Fine then, I won't tell you what I put your name as then," Clarke says as she changes Lexa's contact name to be "commander hearteyes."

****

"That's fair," Lexa says, which causes Clarke to frown playfully when Lexa doesn't react the same way she does. She looks down at her watch and sees that it's 1:20pm already.

****

"As much as I'd love to stay, I've gotta head off, I have to go grocery shopping before I pick up Madi and have to pick up Octavia and Raven," Clarke says with a sigh. 

****

Lexa's smile falls a little when she remembers that they both have responsibilities they have to get back to, but it goes right back up again when she remembers that she has Clarke's number.

****

"Of course," Lexa says. "Say hi to Madi for me!"

****

Clarke smiles. "She'll be asking me for hours why she didn't take her with me."

****

"As much as it may have been a plan to try and get your number," Lexa says with a sheepish grin, "I wasn't joking when I said that you can bring Madi around."

****

Clarke's admiration for Lexa grew more in that moment as she realised that if her and Lexa did ever try to do anything romantic, Lexa would always have Madi's best interests at heart and would understand that she comes with Clarke as a package deal, as well as the fact that as well behaved as Madi is it isn't always sunshine and rainbows raising a kid.

****

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Promise. I do have to head off now though," Clarke replies, a little sad she has to go.

****

"I won't hog you any longer," Lexa says with a grin. "Go do your stuff."

****

Clarke smiles and moves to hug Lexa quickly, so quickly that Lexa barely has time to reciprocate it once she gets over the initial shock that Clarke's hugging her.

****

"Bye," Clarke says as she walks back towards the door, waving as it shuts behind her. She's halfway to her car when she decides to turn around, and is glad she did because she sees Lexa fist pumping the air and Anya laughing as she walks past her. She can imagine Lexa's blush at being caught and sees her shove Anya away as she opens the door to her car and pulls out her phone.  


****

1:23pm  


****

**griffindor  
** I have big boy news y'all 

****

**literalgenius  
** WHAT

****

**literalgenius  
** Clarke istg I love you but you can't leave me hanging like that

****

**griffindor  
** sorry I had to make sure I didn't leave my wallet at the salon

****

**literalgenius  
** was that seriously the "big boy" news

****

**griffindor  
** no jeez gimme a second a girl needs time to type

****

**literalgenius  
** ...go on then

****

**griffindor  
** Octavia wasn't the only one to get someone's number today🥺🥺

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maybe leave a comment on what you thought? only if you wanna tho. also!! if you do wanna leave a comment tell me what your favourite bit was? I loved writing the texting bits between Clarke, Raven and Octavia but if y'all didn't like them or didn't like reading them they're easy to cut out of future chapters. and i kinda wanna see if anyone can guess who Lexa's best friend is and also if anyone can guess who O's mystery man is


	3. Murphy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madi and Clarke have a movie marathon with Octavia and Raven when an unexpected visitor turns up. Madi has a bad day and of course Clarke fixes it by inviting Lexa out with them the next day. This is more of a filler chapter, and sorry there's not much Lexa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let's not talk about how I haven't updated for more than a month✌️

Clarke pulls out of the carpark and drives down to Raven and Octavia's apartment, prepared to make them help her get her groceries. Ten minutes later she parks in front of their building as she searches her purse for the spare keys they gave her, one for their apartment and one for the actual building. As she waits for the elevator she texts Raven.  


1:39pm  


**griffindor**  
hey Rae I'm coming up to your apartment y'all are gonna help me grocery shop while I tell you about the girl  


**literalgenius  
** ok I'll get O

Clarke gets in the elevator and presses the number 3 button as she lets her mind wander back to Lexa, and that lead to thinking of when she would see her again. Her train of thought was cut short when the elevator doors opened and she saw Octavia and Raven on the other side, both of them jumping in to scare her.

"Motherfuckers!" Clarke yells as she clutches at her chest in fear, attempting to get her breath back as she glares at the both of them. 

Octavia and Raven double over in laughter as Clarke presses the button for ground again. Raven recovers first, offering Octavia a hand to pull her up from the floor.

"What the fuck guys I thought I was about to be mugged," Clarke says grumpily, trying to hide the little smile, to no avail. 

"You have to admit that was pretty funny, Clarke," Octavia says as she wipes at her tears, letting the last of her giggle leave her system. 

Clarke crosses her arms and sticks her bottom lip out, huffind overdramatically and turning away from the two. This only causes Raven to laugh harder, and then Octavia starts laughing because of Raven, and even Clarke joins in right as the door opens up. 

"Come on, I actually do have to get my grocery shopping done before we go to pick up Madi," Clarke says as she drags Raven and Octavia out of the elevator with her. 

"Alright alright, we're coming," Octavia sighs. 

"So are you gonna tell us about mystery girl or not Clarke?" Octavia asks as she pushes the cart around.

"Oh yeah!" Raven says as she pops a grape into her mouth. Raven's found a little cart that's meant for kids and is pushing it around by the little flag that sticks out on top of it. She keeps throwing in candy and chocolate that she insists is for Madi even though they all know she'll probably give Madi a couple boxes of skittles and then keep the rest for herself. She also threw in her bag of grapes that she keeps eating out of even though Clarke and Octavia keep trying to smack them out of her hand.

Clarke sighs as she tries to think of where to start. "She's really amazing. Or at least she seems that way and has done nothing at all so far to prove otherwise. She's great with Madi too. And guys, she's so pretty. Like… Greek goddess pretty, no description of mine would ever give her justice."

Octavia stops pushing the cart and looks at Clarke. Raven does as well, the two of them communicating silently.

"We know that look. It's the same one you had when you were dating Finn through highschool," Octavia says.

"She's not like Finn, I promise guys. Even though Madi's one of the best things to ever happen to me Finn fucked me over and Lexa wouldn't do that. I know it."

"We just wanna make sure you don't get hurt again, Griff," Raven chimes in, turning serious. 

"I know, and that's why you guys are the best friends I could ever ask for. But this is a gut feeling, like a tingling in your fingers when you know something's meant to be."

Octavia and Raven look at each other again before nodding, Clarke still none the wiser to what they were thinking.

"Good," Octavia says finally. "That's all we can ask for and if you think she's amazing then she probably is. Especially if she's good with Madi."

"We still wanna meet her though. Especially now that you've told us she looks like a Greek goddess," Raven adds.

"You will," Clarke says with a slight chuckle. "Just not yet. I've got her number but nothing's happened between us so far except for her cutting my hair."

"OH!" Raven practically yells, slightly muffled because of the grape she threw into her mouth seconds earlier. "I forgot!! It looks so good, go off ma'am."

Octavia smiles at her friend's antics and shoves Raven lightly. "Slow your roll, captain. Don't need you choking on a grape. We're only a quarter of the way through the list. But it really does look amazing Clarke," Octavia finishes with a smile at Clarke.

"Thanks guys, I love it. You think Madi will like it?"

Raven abandons her little cart and instead wraps her arms around Clarke's shoulders from behind. "Of course she'll like it, you look hot Clarke."

Raven moves away with a cheeky grin and yelps overdramatically when Octavia smacks her on the shoulder.

"You wound me, Blake," Raven says as she turns away with a sniff.

"We have shopping to do dorks, so unless you want to be late picking Madi up and dealing with the wrath that comes with "Mama Bear Clarke", come help me," Clarke says, putting quotations around the title that her friends had given her once Madi was born. At least it was better than Party Girl Griffin, she doesn't need Madi to have any knowledge about her highschool partying history.

Once they were done with the shopping they drove over to Madi's school, parking the car right when the bell to signal the end of the day goes off.

"Hah! Told you we'd make it on time," Raven says smugly as they all exit the car.

"Just barely. I like to be here at least 10 minutes early," Clarke says as she playfully glares at Raven.

"We're here now, let's just look for Madi," Octavia says as she claps her hands together, hoping to stop her friends bickering.

They move to the designated area where the school prefers for the parents to wait to pick up their kids. Madi runs through the crowd, looking for Clarke. Raven spots the little brunette first.

"There's my favourite niece!" Raven says as she drops down to one knee as best as she can with her brace, opening her arms up for Madi to run into in the process.

"Aunty Rae! Aunty O!" Madi exclaims as she jumps into Ravens arms with a little squeal.

"Hey, did you really forget I was here that quickly?" Clarke asks teasingly, smiling down at her daughter. 

Madi shakes her head. "No. But Aunty Rae and Aunty O haven't picked me up in a loooooooooong time," she says as she moves to give Octavia a hug.

Raven stands up with a thankful nod at Clarke who lent her her hand in case she needed it. "We picked you up on Thursday kiddo!"

"Exactly. A loooooooooong time."

This makes the other parents around them laugh as well, and Madi beams with pride. Clarke smiles softly at her as Octavia helps Madi up so she's sitting on her shoulders. 

"We're gonna go to Rae and O's before we go home, that alright with you babygirl?" Clarke asks as she looks for her keys in her purse.

Madi nods and then they all head off towards the car, Madi telling them about her day at school. Once they get back to Raven and Octavia's apartment Clarke makes sure Madi takes her homework out of her bag despite her insistent grumbling. 

"Madi. We'll go home if you don't get your homework out of your bag," Clarke warns with a hand on her hip. Madi shakes her head quickly as her eyes go wide.

"I don't wanna go home."

"That's what I thought. But we will be if you don't do your homework." At this point Octavia and Raven had left the room after signalling to Clarke that they'd leave her to it.

"But I don't wanna Mommy," Madi says as tears start to pool in her eyes and her bottom lip trembles. Clarke stops for a moment and tries to think of what could make Madi cry over homework as despite the occasional afternoon where she wanted to watch tv instead of her handwriting homework, the girl was usually quite enthusiastic to learn. She'd never reacted to it like this before.

"Hey, is this about something else Madi?" Clarke says as she drops down to her knees so that she's looking up at Madi and making sure she won't feel like she's in trouble. She opens her arms up for Madi to come into if she wants but she doesn't pull her into a hug, wanting to leave the decision up to Madi.

Madi mumbles something incoherent into Clarke's shoulder as she walks into her Mom's embrace, Clarke wrapping her arms around the little girl as she picks her up to go sit down on the couch. 

"I didn't quite catch that Madi, can you repeat it?" She asks as she starts running circles on Madi's back.

Madi lifts her head from Clarke's neck and Clarke wipes away the silent tears that had fallen. Madi tries to tell her but then she starts crying again, big, silent tears streaming down her face.

"Oh Madi," Clarke sighs sadly, adjusting their position so that her head is propped up on the end of the couch and Madi's laying down on top of Clarke. Raven catches her eyes and points to the peanut butter and jelly in Octavia's hands, silently asking if she wants them to make sandwiches. Clarke nods her head as she knows they're Madi's favourite, and then turns her attention back to Madi.

"Madi, baby, please look up at me," Clarke says softly as she runs her hands through Madi's hair. 

Madi sniffles as she turns so that her chin is resting on Clarke’s chest bone and she’s looking up at her mom. Clarke squeezes her in a hug for a couple moments before sitting back up a little, pulling Madi up with her.

“I can talk to your teacher about letting you not do it this one time, but you’ll have to tell me why you don’t want to, especially when there’s only 4 days left of year 2 and you’ve been doing so well this year. That seems pretty fair, right?”

Madi nods her head and pulls her hands away from hugging Clarke so that she can wipe the tears away from her eyes. “Can I tell you when we go home?” Madi asks once she’s finally able to calm down enough to speak clearly.

Clarke nods her head and helps Madi wipe away her tears as Raven and Octavia walk back into the room carrying a peanut butter sandwich for each of them.

“We made some sandwiches,” Octavia says as she sets her, Raven and Clarke’s plates down on the table. Raven sits down next to Clarke and Madi and hands Madi her plate directly.

“We made sure to cut the crusts off and make a smiley face with the jelly,” Raven says with a smile as Clarke sits both her and Madi upright.

“What do you say Madi?” Clarke says gently.

“Thank you Aunty Rae. And Aunty O,” Madi says quietly as she takes the plate from Raven. 

Octavia joins them on the couch, sitting to the right of Clarke. Madi snuggles into Clarke and Raven, draping her legs over Raven’s lap and leaning her head on Clarke’s shoulder.

“I take it this afternoon calls for a movie marathon? Or at least two movies before it gets too late?” Octavia asks as she leans over to grab the remote off of the coffee table. Madi and Clarke nod in response.

“Ok then, what movies kiddo?” 

“Harry Potter please,” Madi replies, back to speaking at her normal volume. Clarke, Raven and Octavia all smile, none of them should have thought anything else considering the series was Madi’s all time favourite movies. Clarke started reading her the first book when she turned 7, and after reading one chapter over two nights for almost every single day since they started the books they were now about to start the final book in the series.

“We’ll only have time to watch the first one, is that ok?” Clarke asks. Madi nods and goes back to finishing her sandwich so she can stretch out across her mom and aunts.

The four girls are sprawled across the couch and watching the bit where Harry first rides a broomstick when there’s a knock at the door. All four heads turn towards the door in sync, almost comically alike. 

“Are you expecting anyone?” Clarke asks as Octavia stretches forward to pause the movie.

“No. I’ll get it,” Raven says as she lifts Madi’s legs up and moves towards the door. Clarke and Octavia can’t see her once she turns down the hallway but they hear her open the door. 

There's a pause of almost complete silence after Raven opens the door but then Avery familiar voice floats in.

“Ello gov'na,” Murphy says as he strides in, leaving an astounded Raven in the hallway. He shrugs off his coat and moves his sunglasses off of his face to hang on the collar of his shirt. When he rounds the corner he’s greeted with the sight of an equally astounded Clarke and a very confused Octavia. Madi’s leaping off the couch to greet her uncle though.

“Uncle Murphy!” Madi shrieks as she runs towards him, jumping up at the last second and hanging onto him around his torso.

“Well hello there little hobbit,” Murphy says kindly as he hoists Madi up onto his waist so she won’t keep slipping down to the ground.

Octavia's the first one to speak. "Murphy?!" she half asks, half yells. 

"Well hello to all of you too," he replies dryly as he joins them on the couch.

"Hey!" Raven says, finally saying something. "We may not have seen each other for a couple months but that gives you no right to steal my spot or my niece."

Raven walks back over to the couch and sticks herself between Clarke and Murphy. 

"She's my niece too y'know," Murphy replies.

"That's beside the point. At least gimme my seat back cockroach."

"Fine. Madi do you wanna come here with your cool uncle or stay here with your boring aunt's?" Murphy says as he puts Madi down and bends down so he's eye level with her. 

Madi giggles and runs to Clarke, jumping up onto her lap and startling her out of her shock. "Stay with mommy," she says as she makes herself comfortable on Clarke.

"Good choice," Clarke says as she kissed the top of Madi's head. "But Murphy, aren't you still meant to be in London?" 

"Ah. I'll explain that when the hobbit isn't here. Adult stuff. And I'm sure she wants to keep watching Harry Potter."

"Ooh! Yes please!" Madi says as she turns her head towards Octavia expectantly, waiting for her to turn on the tv. 

Octavia and Clarke giggle and hit play once Raven's settled back into her spot again and Murphy's squeezed himself in.

The movie finishes at about 6:20. Raven, Octavia and Murphy make sure that they leave the apartment fine and Octavia makes Madi pinky promise to remind her mom to text them when they get home. When they get home 15 minutes later Clarke unloads the groceries from the back of the car and Madi helps them carry them up into the caravan, glad the drive between her house and Raven and O's wasn't far, it saved the items that needed to be refrigerated from melting.

"Can you help me put the icecream in the freezer?" Clarke asks Madi as she packs away the rest of the stuff into their rightful places.

"You got icecream?" Madi asks excitedly as she runs to the bags to find it.

"Of course. It's your last week of year 2, you deserve a treat. It's strawberry, your favourite."

"Thank you mommy!" Madi hugs Clarke once she's put the icecream in the freezer before running off to sit on the couch and pick out a book from the bookshelf. 

Five minutes later Clarke joins her on the couch and gently taps the top of the book to get her attention. Madi looks up and quickly folds the page corner over so she won't lose her spot.

"You ready to tell me why you didn't want to do your homework?" Clarke asks gently, pulling the book from Madi's hands gently and placing it on the small end table. 

Madi's face falls quickly, and she moves over so that she's sitting in Clarke's lap.

"This boy said that I was a- a good for nothing tryhard and would never graduate because of where we live," Madi says quietly, struggling a bit to remember what the boy said exactly.

Clarke quickly wipes away the tears that form in her eyes, not wanting this to be about her. "Go on," she says as she hugs Madi tighter.

"I didn't want to do my homework because he's been taking mine and copying it and then ripping it in half and throwing it in the outside bins so that the teacher will think I didn't do it."

Clarke gasps and turns Madi around a little so that she can look her in the eyes. "What's his name Madi? How many times has he done this? Is it just him?"

"Ethan. The blonde boy."

Clarke seethes as she realises the kid that she's talking about. The kid that also happens to be raised by Finn, although he's not his which Clarke is eternally grateful for, as it means the boy that's been bullying her sweet, intelligent daughter isn't related to her in any way.

"How many times has he done this, Madi?" Clarke asks once she gets her emotions in check again.

"A lot," Madi whispers nervously. 

"Ok, do you remember when it started?"

"In March," she whispers even quieter than before.

"Madi, why wouldn't you tell me this before?" Clarke says, her heart breaking for her daughter as tears form again, knowing she would be calling the principal tonight as the school supposedly tolerated no bullying yet the boy bullying her daughter for months had gone undetected.

"Because he said his dad would kick us out of our home," Madi says, unaware that the man she was talking about was also her biological father who left Clarke and Madi alone, putting them into the situation that they were in right now.

Clarke tenses up immediately and kisses the top of Madi's head. She tries to think of what to do and then just settles on letting Madi not go to school tomorrow. "I'm going to make some calls, ok babygirl? And we're gonna have a mental health day tomorrow. Do you want me to text Lexa to see if we can meet up with her?" Clarke asks gently as she brushes Madi's hair away from her face.

Madi's face lights up as if Christmas was coming early. "Does that mean I don't have to go to school?" She asks with a big smile.

Clarke nods with a smile as well. "We'll do some reading though, yeah? You can choose the book."

"Harry Potter!" 

"Of course, I would've been surprised if you'd picked anything else!"

Madi giggles and wraps herself around Clarke. Clarke grabs the remote and turns the tv on, turning it to the Disney channel.

"I've got to get up and get dinner ready but make sure you don't fall asleep, alright? We've still gotta have dinner."

"Ok," Madi says as she readjusts herself so that her head is resting on the edge of the couch.

15 minutes later Clarke calls her over for dinner. She had something planned for tonight but decided to cook up the spaghetti she had instead, knowing that it was Madi's favourite food. 

"What are we having?" Madi asks as she moves to the little table built in by the couch. 

"Spaghetti, do you want cheese on yours or no?"

"Yes please."

"Alrighty then, spaghetti coming right up."

While they eat dinner Madi tells Clarke about the rest of her day at school, and then afterwards Madi helps Clarke dry the dishes after Clarke's washed them.

Once they're sitting down on the couch and have a blanket draped over them Clarke pulls out her phone.

"Madi, do you want me to text Lexa and see if we can meet up with her tomorrow?"

Madi gasps happily and turns her full attention to Clarke. "Really?!" 

"If she's free, then yeah."

"Yes yes yes yes yes! Please," Madi remembering to add the magic word on.

Clarke laughs and pulls up Lexa's contact.

7:38pm  


**blondie**  
Hey Lexa, I was wondering if me and Madi could come see you tomorrow?

She didn't get a response after a couple minutes so she puts her phone down and watches Jessie with Madi. 15 minutes later, her phone buzzes.

7:54pm  


**commanderhearteyes**  
Clarke! I'd love to see you and Madi tomorrow, but doesn't Madi have school? Unless you meant after school.

****

**commanderhearteyes**  
And you're lucky, tomorrow's my day off🥰

****

**blondie**  
We decided to have a mental health day tomorrow, something happened at school today

****

**blondie**  
What time would be best for you? We have nothing on tomorrow except for some reading later on in negotiation for not going to school

****

**commanderhearteyes**  
Would 10 be alright? I've gotta drop Anya off at the salon since her cars at the shop but I'll be back at mine by about 9:40 or so

****

**blondie**  
That works out perfectly. Madi just asked me if we could go to the zoo, if that's ok with you?

****

**commanderhearteyes**  
I love the zoo, but I hate the insect section so I'll just sit out on that if Madi wants to go there

****

**blondie**  
I don't think you'll have to worry, she's more interested in the big loud animals

****

**commanderhearteyes**  
Sounds great! See you tomorrow then💞

****

****

**blondie**  
See you tomorrow then!😀

"What did Lexa say Mommy?" Madi asks when she sees Clarke grinning down at her phone.

Clarke startles, almost dropping her phone in the process, scared she almost got caught smiling at her phone after a mostly normal conversation.

"She's looking forward to coming to the zoo with us tomorrow!" Clarke says excitedly as she puts her phone down and pulls her daughter into her lap, holding her like how she used to when she was younger.

"Mommy, I'm big now!" Madi grumbles half-heartedly as she tries to escape Clarke's hold.

Clarke sighs as she kisses Madi's forehead. "I know, you need to stop growing though! I don't want my little girl to grow up."

"You did," Madi points out a little sleepily as she settles down in Clarke's arms.

"I did, didn't I? Now at least I understand how my dad felt."

This makes Madi giggle but then she yawns, her efforts to try and hide it from Clarke failing.

"Come on Madi, time for bed. We've got a big day tomorrow," Clarke says as she stands up as best as she can while carrying Madi. 

"We gonna see Lexa?" Madi asks sleepily as Clarke puts her down on her bed.

"Yeah, we're gonna see Lexa baby, and it'll be even more fun tomorrow if you can fall asleep quickly so you'll have a lot of energy," Clarke says as she sits down on the edge of Madi's bed and runs her fingers through her hair, making Madi smile contentedly.

"Ok, goodnight Mommy," Madi whispers as she turns into her side.

"Goodnight Madi," Clarke replies gently. She stands up from the bed after kissing Madi goodnight and smoothing her hair back one more time. She goes back to the couch and changes the channel to Friends, turning the volume down so it won't wake Madi up and half watching it, half trying to figure out how she's going to survive a whole day with Lexa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really am sorry for the late update guys, I've had no inspiration to write and I'd also rather post something I'm happy with than post for the sake of posting.


	4. The Zoo p1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The zoo trip that was originally only meant to be the span of a chapter but I got carried away and is now probably going to spread across 3 or 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> text that's in italics and is in these thingies: [ ] is the person on the phone! :)

Clarke makes some calls the next morning. The first one to Madi's teacher to tell her about what's been happening and that Madi won't be at school, and the second to the principal to tell him about what's been happening as well and asking him again about how there's meant to be a no bullying policy at the school. Once it reaches 8 o'clock Clarke wakes up Madi, after making the decision to let her sleep in since she's not going to school and they won't leave until 9:15 or so. 

"Good morning, Madi," Clarke says softly as she sits down on Madi's bed and gently shakes her awake. 

Madi grumbles a little and turns over away from Clarke, attempting to pull the blanket up over her head in her half-asleep state. Clarke chuckles a little and moves to stand up and open the blinds, but then Madi grabs her hand and pulls her back down.

"Cuddles," Madi says quietly as she wraps her arms around Clarke's waist. Clarke smiles and complies with Madi, laying down next to her daughter and wrapping her up in a hug.

"5 minutes, yeah? Then we gotta get up," Clarke says as Madi grips the bottom of Clarke's pajama shirt. Clarke runs her free hand through Madi's hair and places a kiss on her forehead before turning a little so she can look out the window. 

Once Clarke was finally able to get Madi out of bed (with the promise of lucky charms for breakfast, which she could normally only have on weekends) and be all ready to head off, she lets her watch tv for a bit as she pulls out her phone to give Lexa a call and ask if she wanted to meet at the zoo or carpool. She picks up after 4 rings and sounds a bit puffed out.

_[Clarke! Hey, we still on for the zoo?]_

"Yeah, Madi's really excited to see you so you might want to prepare yourself a little," Clarke replies with a laugh, Lexa joining in as well. It's then that Clarke decides that Madi and Lexa's laughs are her favourite sounds in the world, and that she'd do anything to hear both of them as often as she could.

_[Alright, I'll- Anya!]_

Clarke pulls the phone away from her ear and puts it on speaker when she hears the scuffle on the other side of the line. 

_[Ooh, this is that blonde girl from the salon the other day, isn't it commander? Lexa- stop hitting me. Hey blondie!]_

That definitely wasn't Lexa's voice.

"Anya? What are you doing to Lexa?"

_[Nothing bad, although I'm afraid to tell you that you've become acquaintances with the most dramatic and extra gay ever, I thought it would be a while before you see the full extent of Lextra, but here we are.]_

"Lextra?" Clarke asks as she tries to cover up her laugh for Lexa's sake.

_[Precisely. Anyway. Before Lexa actually flips me off of her, I need to say what I came to say, basically hurt my baby sister and you'll be in a world of hurt, so I recommend you don't. Got it?]_

Clarke gulps at the seriousness of Anya's tone, knowing the threat was there even with only a sentence. "Got it. Loud and clear. I wouldn't ever think of doing that," Clarke responds just as seriously.

_[Good. 'Cause you're hot and it would be a shame if- Anya enough!]_

Clarke hears a thud and Anya laughing, but then the phone gets picked up again and the person who picked it up runs into a room and slams the door closed behind them, locking the door too.

_[I'm so so sorry about that Clarke. Anya had me pinned to the couch and I couldn't get the phone off of her and I'm so sorry it won't happen again and-] ___

____

__

Clarke cuts her off with a laugh before she can continue anymore of her rambling.  
"Lexa, it's ok. Anya seems like quite the character. She reminds me of my best friend actually," Clarke says.

_[She definitely is. As many perks as there are that come with living with your sister, there are just as many cons and unfortunately that's one of them. On another note, was there a particular reason why you called? I don't mean to sound rude or anything, it's just that I'm going to be leaving to drop Anya off at the salon in about 5 minutes.]_

"Oh yes, of course sorry. I just wanted to ask if you'd rather meet at the zoo or carpool?" 

_[I don't mind either, what's best for you?]_

"What's your address? Maybe I can pick you up?"

After Clarke writes down Lexa's address Lexa tells her that she has to go.

_[Thank you Clarke, that'll be a lot easier for me. I've gotta go now though, I'll see you at 9:40?]_

"I'll see you at 9:40. Bye Lexa," Clarke says with a smile.

_[Bye Clarke!]_

With that Lexa hangs up and Clarke goes to find an outfit for herself, knowing she'll have to pick one quickly as it's already 9:00 and she has to be at Lexa's with Madi by 9:40, and it's at least a twenty minute drive. 

"Hey Madi, we're gonna leave in about 15 minutes, ok? Make sure you have your shoes tied properly for me!" Clarke says as she walks by the couch into her bedroom. Madi nods and leans down to tie her laces as she tries to keep watching her cartoon. Clarke smiles at her attempts and then closes the door over so she can get changed. 

After deciding on a simple white blouse and light blue jeans, she puts on her red converse that she knows she can walk around in for a while without her feet hurting, and then grabs her dark blue jacket to throw into the back of her car in case it gets cold. She grabs Madi's as well and then heads back out to where Madi's watching tv. 

"I got a jacket for you in case it gets cold, I'll leave them in the back with you while we go to pick up Lexa, ok?" Clarke says as she grabs her keys from the dining table.

"We're picking up Lexa?" Madi asks excitedly as she stands up and follows Clarke out of their caravan. 

"Yeah we are babygirl. I'm going to throw these in the back real quick, can you go back inside and pull out one of the picnic bags? You can help me put the sandwiches and snacks in."

"Ok!" Madi runs back into the caravan and starts pulling the sandwiches, apples and oranges out of the fridge. Clarke walks in a moment later, pulling out the picnic bag and thanking Madi for pulling out the food, even if she got a little confused on the instructions. 

"Do you want to grab the bag of goldfish in the cupboard?" Clarke asks as she packs everything in the bag. 

Madi lights up as if it's Christmas and nods her head quickly, turning around to grab the snack out of the cupboard. When she turns around holding a bag of Jolly Ranchers as well, Clarke raises an eyebrow.

"For you and Lexa!" Madi clarifies with an innocent smile.

"Ok, thank you Madi. Put it in the bag and we'll head out, ok?" 

Madi nods again and throws both the bags in, passing the bag off to Clarke before running out to the car. 

"In the back young lady!" Clarke says with a teasing smile as she sees Madi rush to the passenger seat. "We're picking up Lexa, remember?"

Madi nods so much that Clarke is worried she'll give herself whiplash, and then opens the door to the back and climbs into the middle. Clarke shuts the door for her and opens up the boot, putting their picnic bag in a place where it won't tip over. She walks back to the front of the car and sits down in the seat, turning around so she can see Madi and make sure she has her seatbelt on.

"Seatbelt on?" She asks as she turns back around, mainly out of habit as she's already seen that Madi had put it on.

"Yup!" 

"Alright then, let's get going."

They pull up in front of Lexa's house 15 minutes later, at 9:30, considerably earlier than she expected to be. She moves to pull out her phone to send Lexa a text when her phone starts ringing from a private number.

"Hello?" Clarke asks as she turns around a little to make sure Madi's ok.

_[Is this Clarke Griffin?]_ Someone asks in a very deep, fake voice. 

"Hello Octavia. Or Raven. Probably both, what did you guys want?"

She hears Raven's laughter on the other side of the phone, which meant that Octavia was the one who put on the fake voice.

 _[You should've seen O's face when she did that voice, Clarke. She really thought she got you this time.]_

"You'd think that after what, 23 years of knowing you guys she'd know her fake voices aren't very well thought through. Anyways! Was there something you guys needed? I'm outside Lexa's right now, so I can't really pick anything up that isn't already on the way to the zoo."

 _[The zoo?! Why didn't I get an invite?]_ Raven says with a sniff before Octavia takes her phone back.

_[Because you work today. You're going to be late if you continue on at this rate. Oh and Clarke! I wanted to ask if you wanted seats for the dolphin show. My co-workers family was meant to go but their kid came down with the flu so they've given the tickets to me but they're gonna expire before the next dolphin show so they're useless after today. They're front row too.]_

"Wait, really? That would be amazing! Thank you so much, O, I know Madi will love it," Clarke says as she turns around to Madi. 

"I'm gonna put you on speaker now so Madi can hear you too," Clarke adds to give Octavia a warning before pressing the button.

"Hi Aunty O!" Madi almost yells, still not quite grasping the concept that you don't have to yell when you're on the phone and that it's just as if they're standing next to you.

_[Hey kiddo! How do you feel about going to the dolphin show?]_

Madi squeals excitedly and looks at Clarke for confirmation, smiling even bigger when Clarke nods her head with a grin.

_[I'll give them to you and your mom when you guys get to the zoo, is that ok?]_

"Yes yes yes yes yes!!!! Thank you Aunty O!"

 _[No problem kid]_ Octavia says with a laugh.

"Wait. What about Lexa? Can she come with us too?" Madi asks a little worriedly.

_[Yes of course, I made sure there would be enough tickets for all of you]_

"Pretend I'm giving you a hug Aunty O!"

_[Ok, and pretend I'm giving you one back! I just gotta talk to your mom again real quick and then I'll let you go so you can see Lexa, yeah?]_

"Yeah! Bye bye!"

Clarke pulls Octavia off of speaker and brings the phone up to her ear again.

"It's me again O. And you're not on speaker anymore."

_[Ok good, I'll make it quick. From both me and Raven, we don't know if this thing between you and Lexa is romantic or platonic or whatever, but either way just remember that not everyone's Finn, ok? I know we were a little protective at the grocery store yesterday but we genuinely do just want you to be happy, Griff. So let yourself open up a little to Lexa and let this thing go its own way.]_

Clarke wipes discreetly at the single tear that escaped her eye and smiles softly. 

"Thank you, O. Tell Raven I said thanks too. And I will. Open up and not block everything out, I mean. I should get going now though, its nearing 9:40 and I promised to pick up Lexa at this time."

_[Ok I won't hog you any longer, go have fun with Madi and Lexa. I'll see you at the zoo, look for me at the gift shop when you get here. Love you Clarkie.]_

"Love you too O, thanks for all this. See you soon!"

With that Clarke hangs up and turns back around to Madi, who was looking out the window at the German Shepherd lying on the stairs of one of the houses.

"Look at how big the puppy is Mom!" Madi exclaims excitedly as she points out the window.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he's a little older than a puppy if he's that big. Let's go knock on Lexa's door now though, yeah? And then we'll head off to the zoo," Clarke says as she unbuckles her seatbelt and opens her car door. 

Madi follows her out of the car and they walk up to the house with the number that Lexa sent Clarke, and it just so happens to be the one that had the German Shepherd. Clarke unlocks the gate and opens it slowly, making sure Madi stays back behind her and away from the gate a little in case the dog isn't friendly. It stays put though, only lifting its head up a little more on its paws to look at Clarke. She walks up to the front door and as she walks up the stairs the dog stands up and licks her knee, which gets rid of any of Clarke's nervousness about the dog being unfriendly. She waves Madi up and knocks on the door with her other hand, gently scratching behind one of the dog's ears as Madi runs up the stairs. Lexa opens the door a couple seconds later, and Madi hides behind Clarke's legs a little. 

"Madi, Clarke! It's good to see you two again," Lexa says with a smile as she finishes tying her hair up in a ponytail. 

"Good morning Lexa," Madi says as she comes out from behind Clarke's legs and pets the dog.

"Good morning Madi!" Lexa says kindly as she smiles at her.

"Is that your dog?" Clarke asks after saying good morning to Lexa.

"Technically, he's Anya's but I call him my son. His name is Pauna," Lexa says as she smiles fondly down at Pauna and rubs his back. "He seems kinda scary but honestly he's the biggest wuss I've ever seen, all he wants is for you to pet him and give him food."

Madi laughs, making Clarke and Lexa smile at her. "Well, do you wanna head off?" Clarke asks. 

"Yeah!" Madi says excitedly, startling Pauna a bit. "To the zoo!" She runs back to the car and flies into the back seat, waiting for the two older women to join her.

"I've just gotta make sure his food and water bowls are filled up, and then I'll come join you guys." Lexa says as she grabs her house keys from the small table a little way into her hallway. 

Clarke nods and walks back to the car as Lexa whistles for Pauna to come over by her and follow her into the house. She comes back out a couple minutes later, closing her front door behind her and then jogging down the pathway to the front gate and closing that behind her as well. Madi's practically bouncing in her seat by the time Lexa finally joins Clarke in the front.

"Come on come on come on, I wanna see all the animals and the dolphins!" Madi says as Clarke starts driving down the road.

"Dolphins?" Lexa asks Clarke.

"Yeah, my friend works at the zoo so when her co-workers couldn't use their tickets they gave them to Octavia and she gave them to us for today."

"That's really nice of her," Lexa says as she looks out the window.

"Uh-huh!" Madi says from her seat in the back. "Lexa what's your favourite animal?"

"Hmm. I think racoons are really cute, but I don't reckon they'll be at the zoo. If I had to choose one at the zoo then I'd probably say the monkeys. They're pretty funny. Just make sure they don't steal your food!" Lexa replies, making Clarke giggle with her last sentence. "I know what your favourite animal is Madi, what's yours Clarke?"

"Lions. Have been since I was a kid, I've always loved drawing them and then it just grew into a general admiration for the actual animal and not just what they looked like. Why do you like raccoons though? Don't they just eat trash?"

"Well number one baby raccoons are really cute," Lexa says with a laugh. "Number two, when I was about 5 or 6 I got into my foster mum's eyeliner, ended up smearing it all across my eyes enough that it looked like the dark band around raccoons eyes. When I showed Anya, she threw me over her shoulder, carried me over to mum and dad and then told them that we no longer have a second daughter but instead a pet raccoon. My dad helped me look them up on his computer later in the afternoon and I fell in love with them. And number three, no they don't just eat trash, they're really fluffy and some of them are nice." 

"Sure, Lexa," Clarke says with a laugh as they pull up to a red light. "I can see the resemblance though, just smudge some black eyeliner all around your eyes and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

Clarke brings her hand up to Lexa's face and traces out where the eyeliner would go, making Madi giggle and Lexa internally freak out. 

"Hey! I wouldn't look like a raccoon anymore. I'd look like a warrior with badass war paint," Lexa argues playfully, Clarke drawing her hand away as the light has turned green again. 

"Mommy! Lexa said a bad word!" Madi says as she covers her mouth with her hands, surprised to hear Lexa saying a bad word. 

Lexa gasps and turns to Clarke quickly, panicking. "Shit Clarke I'm so sorry- fuck I fucked up again… I'm gonna stop talking now," Lexa says, her voice getting quieter and quieter as she keeps talking. 

Clarke laughs a deep belly laugh, startling Lexa and confusing her to no end. When she turns quickly to look at Lexa she only starts laughing even more, and has to take a couple breathers to calm herself after that. 

"Lexa, don't worry about it, I'm pretty sure after hanging around with me for 8 years now Madi's learnt every swear word in the book, along with every child-friendly variation. You owe me $3 for our swear jar though. One cuss equals one buck. Murphy, Octavia and Raven usually end up putting in at least $10 every time they come over though, so I wouldn't sweat it. It goes towards our McDonald's money anyways."

Lexa smiles, glad she hadn't messed things up with Clarke by swearing in front of her kid. "$3 coming right up," Lexa says as she fishes through her purse for her wallet. 

"Madi, can you get the coffee cup in the back for Lexa?" Clarke asks as she looks at Madi through the rearview mirror. Madi leans over to the right side of the car, fetching a coffee cup with the words "car swear jar" on it, written shakily in a little kid's writing. Upon seeing Lexa's confusion Clarke explains that they have to carpool with Octavia and Raven at least twice a week when they come to pick up Madi with her. Lexa smiles again and hands the cup back to Madi, now with her 3 dollar bills in it. 

Lexa watches Madi count the notes and coins in it, smiling a little when the girls head shoots up excitedly. 

"Mommy, we have $15!" Madi says excitedly as she rattles the cup. 

Clarke winces a little at the sound of coins banging together, but responds to her daughter with just as much enthusiasm as Madi had. "Do we? We'll have to take a trip down to McDonald's again soon. Unless you wanted to save up for something?" 

Clarke had an unspoken agreement with Octavia and Raven that all the money collected from their swear jars would be like Madi's pocket money, since Clarke didn't have enough to spare all the time but she wanted Madi to feel like a normal kid and to be able to learn how to save money and budget properly. So every time they reached a certain amount of money, Clarke would sit Madi down and ask her what she wants to do with it, and also quiz her a little by asking how many things she could buy with it.

"There's this cool new book that everyone's getting, the new diary of a Wimpy kid book! Can I save up for that?" 

"Of course you can Madi, you don't have to ask. You don't have to buy books with your own money though, I can get them for you," Clarke responds, her eyes still never leaving the road. 

"You should save your money for more important things. I almost have enough now anyways. Only ten more dollars!"

Lexa turns to Clarke then, and sees her smile sadly and wipe a tear out of her eye. "Madi, baby, books are so important. Let me buy this one for you?" Clarke looks at Madi through the rearview mirror as she says it this time. She didn't ever want her daughter to think that she had to pay for things like books, and was even more sad that she thought that what she wanted wasn't important to Clarke. She never wanted her to have to think about their money situation, and although Clarke was doing her best to provide for both herself and her daughter, sometimes she struggled a little and she knew Madi had to have known that something was up since she couldn't always get the latest and shiniest toys like the other kids in her class, but Clarke never thought she'd think she'd have to save up to buy herself things like books. 

"Ok!" Madi replies, going back to happily looking out the windows, oblivious to her mom's sadness. 

Lexa taps Clarke's hand gently, and when Clarke turns to look at her she smiles softly and squeezes her hand to show that she's ok. 

Once they get to the zoo Lexa helps Clarke unload the car and make sure Madi doesn't run off, and insists on carrying their picnic bag around. They buy their tickets and then walk to the gift shop, where Octavia's waiting for them.

"Aunty O!" Madi says as she runs up to her aunt, even more excited to see her since she's in her khaki zoo uniform and has a big hat on.

"Madi! Are you excited for your day at the zoo?" Octavia asks as she lifts the girl up onto her hip.

"Uh huh! I'm gonna see giraffes and elephants and lions and monkeys and every animal!" Madi says, counting on her fingers as she lists the animals. "Aunty O, do they have raccoons here?" She asks all of a sudden. 

Clarke and Lexa chuckle a little as Octavia looks a little confused. "No, we don't. Why do you wanna see some raccoons?" Octavia asks as she puts Madi back down on the ground.

"Because they're Lexa's favourite animal," Madi says as she points to the other brunette and walks back to her mom, grabbing her hand and standing between Clarke and Lexa.

Octavia's eyes widen as if she'd just noticed that Lexa was there, and she wiggle her eyebrows at Clarke mischievously as she walks up to Lexa.

"Octavia Blake," Octavia says confidently as she shakes Lexa's hand. "Long-time best friend of Clarkie here, if you ever want to hear about any embarrassing stories me and Raven will be able to tell you about any you want. And she was right when she said that you looked like a Greek goddess." 

"Lexa Woods," Lexa responds politely, although her eyebrows raise as Clarke's cheeks burn, turning to glare at Octavia. "Octavia!" Clarke hisses as Octavia walks towards a rack of shirts. 

"What, just because we're not in high school anymore doesn't mean I can't give you a little push on your romantic endeavours," Octavia says as she mindlessly sorts through the zoos selection of tacky tourist shirts. 

Clarke's cheeks burn even brighter and she turns to Lexa who looks like she's trying to hold a laugh in. Octavia smiles cheekily at Lexa, and then at Clarke, before going to grab the tickets for the dolphin show. She comes back out of the staffroom with a little version of the hat that she's wearing and 3 tickets, placing the little hat on Madi's head and the tickets in Lexa's hand.

"Knowing Clarke, she'll probably panic after not seeing them at the top of her purse after burying so they won't fly out, or not do that because she knows she'll panic and then they actually _will_ fly out, so please hold onto these for all your sakes," Octavia says dramatically, bowing at the end. "Have fun!" She adds as she walks off with a wave.

"Octavia's quite the character," Lexa says with a chuckle. "Is she always like that?"

Clarke nods her head with a small smile, fixing the hat on Madi's head real quick before grabbing her hand again so they can head off and look at the elephants and monkeys. "Might wanna prepare yourself for when you meet Raven, Octavia's definitely the less wild one of the two."

Lexa turns her head to look at Clarke when she says when instead of if when mentioning meeting her other best friend, and sees Clarke freeze when she realises her wording choice. 

"I mean, if you wanted to meet her, I didn't mean to assume, I…" Clarke trails off when she sees Lexa smiling at her fondly.

"I'd love to meet your other friends Clarke. It means I get to spend more time with you," Lexa says as they walk down the main street of the zoo where all the food courts and shops are.

Clarke's previous blush comes back, but not as intensely as it had before. It looked like they were turning the playful flirting up a bit. She's about to respond with a comeback of her own when Madi speaks up.

"Lexa! It's the monkeys!!" Madi says excitedly as she tries to race ahead, pointing down the path that branches out to the right about 20 metres further down.

Clarke and Lexa smile at each other and then allow themselves to be dragged down to the monkeys with Madi, her having grabbed both of their hands already, swinging slightly whenever she could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> friendly disclaimer that I genuinely have no plan for where this is going. I know how I want it to end but not how long or anything like that so bear with me with my updating schedules please. I also have a writing competition that my English teacher entered me in, and it's due August 17th so I probably won't update before then or for a while after. but please continue to leave kudos and comments, they absolutely make my day and inspire me to write quicker, especially since I originally posted this at 1:30 in the morning purely to stop the idea floating around in my head, thinking it would go nowhere!  
> *edit*  
> does anyone know how to get rid of the note that's underneath this it's from chapter 1 and it's starting to piss me off


	5. The Zoo p2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and we have another unexpected character that I wrote in spontaneously

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this isn't as long as the other chapters, life got busy and I lost inspiration again. just wanted to get this out before the finale in case anyone else died and so that this is posted while Madi's still alive

Clarke lifts Madi up onto her shoulders once they reach the monkey enclosure, so that she can see above everyone else. Lexa starts imitating the monkeys and when Madi sees so does she, which scares Clarke for a little since Madi let go of her head and started waving her arms around. Lexa rushes up behind Clarke and puts a hand on Madi’s back to make sure she doesn’t fall off, smiling back at Clarke when she turns around to give Lexa a grateful smile.

“Which animal do you wanna see next, Madi?” Clarke asks as they make their way out of the crowd surrounding the monkeys. “Preferably one that’s not as crowded as the monkeys were, because I won’t be able to carry you around on my shoulders the whole day.”

“Can we go see the dolphins now?”

“The dolphin show won’t start for another 2 and a half hours, baby. We’ll have lunch before we go in, but I don’t think any of us wanna just stand around and wait for the dolphin show to start when we can go around and look at all the other animals,” Clarke says as she starts to bring Madi off of her shoulders. Lexa helps make sure Madi doesn’t fall off, and by the time Madi’s on the ground again she’s thought of another animal. 

“The big ones with the long noses!’" Madi says excitedly as she takes the two older women’s hands again.

“The elephants?” Lexa asks kindly as she looks down at Madi and swings her a bit.

Madi nods swiftly and turns her head to look at her mom.

“Of course we can go to the elephants, and the lions are right beside them pretty much so we can go look at them after, yeah?”

Madi nods again and starts playing a sidewalk game where she can’t walk on the cracks or something like that. Lexa smiles down fondly at the girl who's already made an imprint on her life despite knowing her and Clarke for less than a week. Clarke catches her and can't help the smile that grows on her face from seeing her daughter and Lexa interact. 

"Lexa, you stepped on a crack! That means you broke your mom's back!!" Madi says dramatically, pointing down at the ground and looking up at Lexa with wide eyes. 

Lexa responds just as dramatically as Madi did, placing a hand over her heart and widening her eyes. "No! I'll have to give her a call later tonight to make sure she's alright, won't I?" 

Madi nods quickly, her hair bouncing up and down, which reminds Lexa that she wanted to ask Madi what she thought of her mom's hair now that it was short. 

"I almost forgot to ask, but what do you think of your mom's hair Madi?" Lexa asks, watching Clarke's eyebrows raise as she also turns towards her daughter. 

Madi looks up at her mom and Clarke can't help but laugh when Madi's eyebrows come together and she puts on her concentrating face. When she finally realises after a few seconds that it wasn't that short two days ago she makes an O shape with her mouth and jumps up and down in her spot for a moment. 

"It's so short!" Madi says excitedly, letting go of Lexa and Clarke's hands so she can step back and get a better look. 

"It only took you 2 days to notice!" Clarke says teasingly as she bends down to pick Madi up so they can keep walking towards the elephants. 

"Has it been this short for two days already?"

"Well, Lexa cut it for me yesterday so yeah," Clarke responds.

Madi squirms in Clarke's arms until she has no other choice than to put her down. 

"You went to see Lexa without me?" Madi asks with a pout, crossing her arms over.

Clarke and Lexa both look at each other before breaking out in giggles, Lexa finally able to calm herself after Madi tugs at her sleeve. 

"Yes, Madi?" Lexa asks as she turns to look down at the younger girl. 

"Why didn't you tell my mom to come get me when she came to see you?" Madi asks, arms uncrossed but pout still firmly in place. 

"Because you were at school, little one! And I'm here with you now, we're gonna spend the majority of the day together, hm?" Lexa says as she bends down to Madi's level. 

Madi pretends to think about it before turning back to her mom. "You still betrayed me," she says with as much finality as an 8 year old can have.

Lexa laughs as Clarke realises that those two will probably team up against her more often than not. 

"Ok, but you didn't even notice my hair until today, and you didn't know I was with Lexa until today when we're already here with her. I'm not seeing a problem," Clarke says as Lexa picks Madi up, at her request. 

"Your hair looks really good mommy. You still betrayed me though," Madi says as they carry on walking again.

Clarke shakes her head in amusement, knowing she's fighting a losing battle. Lexa adjusts Madi a little so she has a better grip on her and then they start to see the signs for the elephant enclosure. Lexa struggles a little to keep a hold on Madi as she constantly turns to take in everything around her, resulting in Clarke trying to hold in her laugh at seeing Lexa panic. 

"I see you laughing at me Clarke, you're not slick," Lexa says with a teasing tone as she moves closer to the woman.

Clarke finally lets out her giggle, the sound music to Lexa's ears. 

"Well that's a sound I hope I'll get to hear every day," Lexa says without thinking, her eyes widening as she realises the implications of what she said. 

"I'm sorry if I overstepped, I didn't mean-" Lexa's cut off by Madi who wiggles out of Lexa's arms and starts stomping her foot on the ground, leaving Clarke and Lexa just standing there in confusion. 

Madi looks up at them once she's stopped and says "Pins and needles," as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

The two older women both nod understanding at Madi before they all start walking again, Madi running ahead a little.

"Is this a kind-of date thing?" Clarke asks after a pause, bringing the conversation back to what Lexa said before; still keeping an eye on Madi to make sure she doesn't get too far ahead of them. 

"Do you want it to be a kind-of date thing?" Lexa asks as she moves a little closer to Clarke, her eyes shining with mirth. 

"... I definitely wouldn't be opposed to it," Clarke says a little shakily, deciding to leave the ball in Lexa's court. 

"Then I guess it's a kind-of date thing," Lexa says quietly, more seriously than before, but still loud enough for Clarke to hear. 

They smile at each other and Lexa brushes their hands together twice before deciding to link their fingers together loosely, looking back up at Clarke after to see if it's alright. She's given an answer when Clarke squeezes her hand and tightens the hold, smiling at her and then going back to watching Madi.

All of a sudden the sound of an elephant's trumpet is heard. Madi turns around excitedly, Lexa already had a massive smile on her face from the fact that she was holding hands with Clarke, but it became even bigger once she saw Madi turning around and practically bouncing out of her skin to go see some elephants.

"Hurry up!" Madi says as she runs back and positions herself in between Clarke and Lexa, grabbing one hand each and trying to tug them forward. They decide to humour her and jog along with her until they get to the elephant area, which was about 200 metres or so away.

Lexa notices how Clarke lets Madi run ahead a little and doesn't make her wear one of those animal backpack leashes that she's seen a bunch of other parents use on their kids; and she thinks it's really cool. Maybe because it's because Clarke must have had to have Madi when she was quite young if she's her biological child, or maybe just because she realises that they will probably only make a kid more likely to want to run off. Either way, Clarke and Madi obviously have an incredibly close relationship, and she wants to know how Clarke parents her if they ever decide to enter a long term romantic relationship. 

When they reach the elephant enclosure one of Octavia's coworkers recognises Clarke and Madi, and comes over to them to say hi. 

"Clarke!" The boy greets, grabbing her attention. 

"Monty, hey!" Clarke replies with just as much enthusiasm. "I didn't know you were on shift today," she continues. 

"I'm usually not, I had to cover for Jasper though, he decided a Monday was a great night to get hungover," Monty says with a laugh. Then he seems to notice Lexa and Madi standing a couple metres away, watching the elephants. Lexa's pointing out the baby one hiding in the back to Madi, and Clarke can't help the smile that grows on her face when she sees Madi beam up at Lexa excitedly. 

"Who's that?" Monty asks quietly, still with a teasing tone though. 

"That would be my wonderful daughter, Mr Monty Green," Clarke says with a cheeky grin of her own, turning back to Monty.

Monty sighs good-naturedly. "The other brunette, Clarke. The one who you're currently at the zoo with, with Madi when it's a school day."

"Kids are awful sometimes, we decided it would be ok to take the day off. And that 'other brunette' as you so wisely put it, would be Lexa," Clarke says, making quotations with her fingers when she says the same two words that Monty did. 

Monty stops and thinks for a while, not letting it slip that Clarke didn't introduce her as a friend, although if she's letting her hang around Madi she had to have been at least that, maybe something more. 

"I should probably get back to my area soon, my lunch breaks almost over," Monty says as he checks the leather watch on his wrist. "Although before I go I reckon I should introduce myself to your new friend. And Madi, of course," Monty says quickly as he strides over to Lexa and Madi before Clarke can even think to tell him not to say anything embarrassing.

She's about to follow him when a kid runs right in front of her, tripping himself over and almost herself as well in the process. She couldn't just leave him there crying on the floor with a scraped knee, so she helps him up and walks over with him to his parents after he pointed at a couple that looked a few years older than herself. She spends at least 2 minutes trying to convince his mom that she wasn't trying to kidnap him and that she has a daughter of her own. Which then causes the dad to step in and say that Clarke will be going to hell because there's no ring on her finger and you're not meant to have sex before marriage. Then the mom picks up her son and they walk away, not even bothering to thank her. Because of this Clarke only catches the last bit of what Monty said to Lexa, although judging from the amused smirk on Lexa's face, it was nothing good. 

"Lexa!" Clarke butts herself into the conversation as she forces extra enthusiasm into her voice, hoping to stop Monty from letting lose any other embarrassing stories. "This is Monty, a friend from high school. Monty, this is Lexa."

Monty says bye to Lexa once more and waves before going to say hello to Madi real quick, bending down to her level and telling her a couple facts about the elephants. 

"You'll have to introduce us again later, he's got some stories about a certain someone. And what better way to get to know someone than by hearing stories from their high school friends!" Lexa says cheekily to Clarke, the grin on her face widening, causing Clarke to completely forget about the interaction she had with those parents a few minutes ago.

Clarke can't even bring herself to feel embarrassed when Lexa's looking at her like that, smiling at her like that. She sees Lexa's eyes flicker down to her lips and then back up to her eyes very quickly, quickly enough that if Clarke had blinked she would have missed it. Clarke can't help her own wandering eyes from slipping down to follow the slope of her nose, unintentionally imagining what it would feel like to kiss her naturally pink lips, and then jumping back up to her eyes once she realised what she was thinking. Despite what she was thinking less than a second ago, Lexa's eyes were still by far the part that stood out to her the most. They resembled the colour of a forest, with small flecks of gold spread throughout. The emotion that her eyes hold still amaze Clarke, even after knowing her for less than a week she already knows that Lexa uses her eyes to express how she's feeling, and that hopefully one day, she'll be able to be the lucky one who'll uncover the story that they hold. Lexa parts her lips and goes to say something when their little bubble is broken apart by a small cough from behind them. 

They spring apart as if they were polar opposite magnets, neither realising how close they had gotten to each other. Clarke clears her throat and tries to suppress the blush she feels reeling up her neck when she turns to face Monty. 

"I just thought I should tell you that I do have to head off now," Monty says, looking a little apologetic, realising he interrupted something between the two women. "I didn't want to leave Madi by herself," he adds as an afterthought.

"Thanks Monty," Clarke says with a reassuring smile. "We'll have to make sure to catch up sometime soon, yeah? All of us, a big delinquent get together."

Monty grins again, the guilty look falling off his face. "Yeah. I'll let Jasper know to start another moonshine batch."

Clarke laughs and then they wave goodbye, Monty walking back to the area he's meant to be patrolling. 

"Moonshine?" Lexa asks as they both walk over to Madi, not sure whether to bring up what happened or not. 

"In high school Monty and Jasper would mix drinks a lot, claiming they would become the world's best bartenders. Jasper's on his way actually, he's somehow still running his own bar. Monty decided he wanted to become a zookeeper with Octavia, although he's still got a few bartending tricks up his sleeve. Majority of the drinks they made in highschool were awful, although the first time they made Moonshine in our junior year, it was a cultural reset," Clarke says, changing her tone to be very dramatic at the end, causing Lexa to giggle. "It's extremely strong and I wouldn't recommend using it to get drunk, but once you get past the first burning sip it's actually really, really good."

"Your highschool years sounded like fun," Lexa says, a small smile appearing.

"Most of them were," Clarke says with a hum, drumming her fingers on the fence of the enclosure. 

Lexa doesn't miss the "most" at the beginning of the sentence, although she decides not to question it. Clarke would tell her if she wanted too.

"Would you want to come?" Clarke blurts out all of a sudden, breaking Lexa's train of thought. 

"Come to what?" Lexa asks, making sure that it doesn't seem like she's teasing Clarke.

"Our get together, if we have one. And before you say you don't want to intrude or something like that, it would be ok. Everyone brings other friends or significant others, sometimes even their parents so that they can all retell their own versions of that one time they all had to bail us out of the police station. If you don't want to come then that's perfectly fine, sorry if I made it seem otherwise, it's just that-" Clarke gets cut off by Lexa who lets out a snort, and then immediately covers her mouth with her hand. 

"Sorry, but did you say you had to get bailed out of the police station?" Lexa says as she tries to stifle her laugh, Madi coming up to stand beside Clarke. 

"Yup!" Madi butts in. Clarke looks down at her in surprise, knowing that her daughter knows the pg-rated story of what happened.

"Mommy threw eggs at a man's house."

Lexa guessed that that wasn't the full story and only the story that Madi knew, and when she looked up at Clarke and saw her blush that only confirmed her suspicions. 

"And that is a story for another day!" Clarke says quickly before Madi says anything else. "Why don't we head off to the lions now? We've been at the elephants for a while." 

Madi nods in agreement and goes to hold Clarke's hand, Clarke holding her hand back. 

"If you're absolutely sure that I won't be intruding, then I'd love to go," Lexa says quietly as she steps around to Clarke's other side, the three of them walking over to the lions, Madi looking at everything around them again.

It takes a moment for Clarke to realise what Lexa's referring to, but when she does Lexa sees one of the biggest smiles she's seen so far adorn Clarke's face.

"Really?" Clarke asks excitedly.

Lexa nods her head with her own smile growing in response, getting even bigger after she feels Clarke thread their fingers together again. 

An hour later the three girls find themselves unpacking the lunch Clarke and Madi brought on the designated lawn area. There's a little under an hour left until the dolphin show, which should give them plenty of time to eat. Madi said she was starting to get hungry when they were walking from the giraffes to the lemurs, so they sat down at the next lunch spot they saw. She tried to get the goldfish out and eat them first, although Clarke made her eat her sandwich first. With the promise of goldfish for afterwards, of course.

"What type of sandwich would you like?" Clarke asks as she hands Madi a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

"Have you got another peanut butter and jelly?" Lexa asks.

Clarke nods and passes it to Lexa, getting out her own sourdough sandwich.

"Thanks. I never grew out of them, they're still my favourite," Lexa says as she smiles sheepishly and bites into the sandwich. 

"They're my favourite too!" Madi says excitedly, trying to eat hers as fast as she can so she can have the goldfish.

Lexa smiles and holds up her hand for a high five, which Madi gladly returns. 

"I see I'm the only one with sophisticated taste here," Clarke says teasingly showing off her sourdough.

"Hey!" Lexa says with a laugh. "Peanut butter and jelly is very sophisticated."

"Yeah!" Madi chimes in, then leans over to whisper something in Lexa's ear. 

"What does sophisticated mean?" Madi whispers, Lexa using her hand to cover her ear and Madi's mouth from Clarke. 

"It means something's fancy," Lexa whispers back, leaning to whisper it into Madi's ear as well, smiling as she pulls back and they both bite into their sandwiches at the same time.

"Thanks Clarke," Lexa says with her mouth full of food.

"It's no problem-"

"Lexa don't talk with your mouth full!" Madi interrupts, cutting off Clarke.

"Remember, try not to interrupt Madi. And you're talking with your mouth full too young lady," Clarke says, pointing her finger at Madi teasingly.

Lexa and Madi both blush, causing Clarke to laugh, sneaking out her phone to take a photo of the two of them when they were engaged in their own conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave comments on what you thought? it really does help fuel and inspiration or motivation that comes up


End file.
